Why a longer prompt stops helping
Pasting more into the chat feels like giving the model more to work with. Past a point it is the opposite: the model now has more to read and no signal about which part matters. Everything you paste competes with everything else you paste, and the thing you actually needed is one item in a pile.
The fix is not a shorter prompt. It is a different shape. Keep the notes where they are, and hand over an ADDRESS instead of the contents.
What the Context Compass actually is
One markdown file, one page, that lives at the root of the project. It contains no notes. It contains pointers to notes.
- For every file you keep: what it is, WHEN to reach for it, and where it lives
- Nothing else. No content, no summaries, no pasted excerpts
- If it grows past one page, you have two projects, not one compass
The index stores where your ideas are. It does not store your ideas
The template, copy this
Save this as COMPASS.md in the root of the project. Every line is one file.
- # CONTEXT COMPASS
- Read this file first. Open only the files this file points to.
- ## Research
- notes/hooks.md Use for: opening lines, titles, thumbnails. Not for: scripting.
- notes/audience.md Use for: who this is for, what they already believe.
- notes/proof.md Use for: numbers, screenshots, receipts. Always cite the line you used.
- ## Voice
- notes/voice.md Use for: how I write. Read before drafting anything I will publish.
- notes/banned.md Use for: words and shapes I never use.
- ## Output
- drafts/ Write finished drafts here as YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md
The one thing everybody gets wrong
Most people write an index of WHAT each file is. That is a filing system, and the model still has to guess.
Write an index of WHEN to use each file. "Titles that convert" is a label. "Use for hooks and titles, not for scripting" is a routing instruction, and it is the difference between the model opening two files and the model opening all of them.
- Every line gets a "Use for:" clause. No exceptions.
- Add a "Not for:" clause to anything that could be confused with a neighbour.
- Order the lines by how often you reach for them, not alphabetically.
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Get the full setup steps + the copy-paste setup prompt
The rest of this guide (5 more sections) opens right here. The setup prompt, one paste into Claude that sets it all up, comes by email only. Use your real address.
Unlocks: Prompt 1, the one that makes it read the index first · Prompt 2, the one that turns three files into a brief · Adding a note without breaking anything · Where this stops working, honestly · The one page version
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